Help and answers to frequently asked questions - Website help

Answer: See this step-by-step how-to posted by MRH staffer Jeff Shultz.

• Login or register to post comments

CAN'T REMEMBER YOUR USER NAME?

Try using your email address - both your user name and your email work as a login name.

We assume most people can remember their email address, even if they can't remember their username - especially if they don't visit this site very often.

CAN'T REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD?

At the bottom of the log in form there's a link: Request new password.

Click this link, enter your email address (the one you registered with) and we'll email you a new temporary log in.
 

The email we send you looks like this:

tester,

A request to reset the password for your account has been made at Model  
Railroad Hobbyist magazine.

You may now log in to model-railroad-hobbyist.com by clicking on this link or  
copying and pasting it in your browser:  
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/user/reset/1567/1239604826/136a2aec11286fd3a6febe27324ec5b8

This is a one-time login, so it can be used only once. It expires after one  
day and nothing will happen if it's not used.

After logging in, you will be redirected to  
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/user/1567/edit so you can change your  
password.
 

Click the link (the one shown in red) in your email and you will be automatically logged in and put on your account edit page so you can enter a new password ...

... once you've changed your password and saved it, you should be all set. You should be able to log out and log back in with your new password and life should be great.

If this is NOT how it's working for you, then Contact us and let us help you with your log in.
 

IF ALL ELSE FAILS ...

Use the Contact us menu to notify us that you can't log in and need help. We'll get you going again!

We know things don't always work perfectly and sometimes you need a little personal help - and we're glad to help out.

• Login or register to post comments

Answer: Make sure you have tried all the video playback options we offer. Here they are:

1. If you click in the picture, the video from our main host will play.
2. If you look below the picture and text, there's a link to our video on our mirror site. Click the mirror link to see if it plays any better.
3. If neither one of those options work, there's also a download link. Click it to download the video and try playing it locally to see if it will play any better. You will also need to have a player capable of playing the video back locally - Adobe Media Player works especially well for this. You can download Adobe Media Player here.
    

Before you report the problem to us, here are some more things to try:

1. Did you try a different browser? With the leading edge web material we're presenting, trying at least two browsers almost always solves the problem.
   We find Google Chrome works especially well with our web site and our media.
   Just type "Google Chrome" in the Google search box to get a download link.
2. One useful tip before reporting a problem to us is to power your computer completely down, let it sit for 5 minutes to allow components to cool, and then restart it to see if you have a thermal problem or a residual issue from something else you were running before you tried our site.
   Have you tried a cold reboot to see if that helped?

If none of the above seems to help and you need to report the problem to us, make sure you include the following details:

1. What kind of computer is it? Mac or PC?
2. What kind of operating system are you running? Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, some flavor of Linux, ... ?
3. What kind of browser are you using? Internet Explorer? Firefox? Safari? Google Chrome? Or something else?
4. Are you dial-up or broadband?
5. What version of Flash Player are you using (you need the first number to be 9 or greater)?
   You can find out here ...
6. Describe the problem as specifically as possible. For instance, just saying the "video won't play" isn't specific enough. You need to tell us what "won't play" means. Did you click on the link and it hangs? Does nothing happen when you click on the link? Does the video start to come up and just play the audio with a black screen? Describe "won't play" in as much detail as possible.
    

By giving us the details, we can often recommend further courses of action that will solve your problem.

• Login or register to post comments

Short answer: Most who have video playback problems are using Internet Explorer version 6 or 7 with the Windows XP or Vista operating system. If this is the browser and operating system you are using, then read the long answer for a detailed explanation of what the problem is and how to fix it.

Also, check out these additional troubleshooting tips.

Long answer: If you are a Windows XP or Windows Vista user, then a "feature" Microsoft has recently added to IE6 and IE7 to make it "more secure" is preventing the video playback. We host our videos an a different server to increase bandwidth and make video playback more immediate. This is not an uncommon practice.

Unfortunately, Microsoft recently added "phishing attack" logic to their browsers that under certain special circumstances simply won't let foreign site content display. It is true that a common hacker trick is to take you to a site and then under the hood hit you with content from a completely different site unawares. So Microsoft sort of got it right.

Where Microsoft made their mistake is that their browser doesn't tell you this is the problem nor does it give you the option to allow the content to display anyway - the browser simply won't display the content and doesn't tell you why. Let's hope Microsoft eventually fixes this very unfriendly behavior, since there are legitimate reasons to host some content on a different site!

In the meantime, to fix the problem, you need add our video site http://vps880.inmotionhosting.com as a trusted site in IE. To do this, in your browser:

- Go to Tools > Internet Options ...
- Click the security tab
- Click on the Trusted sites icon
- Click the Sites... button
- Paste http://vps880.inmotionhosting.com into the top box, uncheck Require server verification  ... 
- Click the add button
- Click OK a couple times to back out of all the dialog boxes and apply the changes.

Try clicking on the video to play it. You should now get a question as to whether vps880.inmotionhosting.com is to be trusted - and if you click OK, the video should play back fine.

• Login or register to post comments